U.S. patent application number 13/398302 was filed with the patent office on 2013-02-28 for user interface for large scale system monitoring.
This patent application is currently assigned to CITRIX SYSTEMS, INC.. The applicant listed for this patent is Wei Jungang, Zhongming Shen, Michael Spencer Stinger. Invention is credited to Wei Jungang, Zhongming Shen, Michael Spencer Stinger.
Application Number | 20130055166 13/398302 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 47745538 |
Filed Date | 2013-02-28 |
United States Patent
Application |
20130055166 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Stinger; Michael Spencer ;
et al. |
February 28, 2013 |
User Interface for Large Scale System Monitoring
Abstract
User interfaces that enable monitoring of the configuration and
status of computing systems are disclosed. The user interfaces may
summarize data collected from a plurality of computing systems. The
data may be summarized by flagging collected information that does
not match a set of reference information or the collected
information from other systems. The flags may be presented at a
variety of levels of granularity, and the presence of a flag at one
level of granularity may indicate the presence of a flagged item at
any lower level of granularity. A dynamic hierarchical user
interface provides a user with a high level overview of system
status, as well as the ability to drill down to identify specific
system information that does not adhere to a specified
configuration.
Inventors: |
Stinger; Michael Spencer;
(Pompano Beach, FL) ; Jungang; Wei; (Saratoga,
FL) ; Shen; Zhongming; (Sunnyvale, CA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Stinger; Michael Spencer
Jungang; Wei
Shen; Zhongming |
Pompano Beach
Saratoga
Sunnyvale |
FL
FL
CA |
US
US
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
CITRIX SYSTEMS, INC.
Fort Lauderdale
FL
|
Family ID: |
47745538 |
Appl. No.: |
13/398302 |
Filed: |
February 16, 2012 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
61528090 |
Aug 26, 2011 |
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
715/853 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 3/0482 20130101;
G06F 16/283 20190101; G06F 3/0481 20130101; G06F 2203/04803
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
715/853 |
International
Class: |
G06F 3/048 20060101
G06F003/048 |
Claims
1. One or more tangible computer readable media containing
computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the
following steps to be performed: flagging items of information
collected from a plurality of computing systems, the collected
information pertaining to one or more of the configuration and the
status of said computing systems; displaying a multi-level user
interface that summarizes flagged items at a first level of
granularity by providing one or more visual indications of groups
containing flagged items, and in response to a user selection of a
group containing flagged items at the first level of granularity,
displaying the multi-level user interface at a second level of
granularity, wherein the second level of granularity is lower than
the first level of granularity.
2. The computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the multi-level
user interface at the second level of granularity summarizes the
flagged items in the selected group by providing one or more visual
indications of sub-groups of the selected group that contain
flagged items.
3. The computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the multi-level
user interface at the second level of granularity summarizes the
flagged items in the selected group by providing one or more visual
indications of items of the selected group that are flagged.
4. The computer readable media of claim 1, wherein flagging items
of information collected from a plurality of computing systems
comprises: comparing the collected information with a set of
reference data and flagging the items of collected information that
differ from the reference data.
5. The computer readable media of claim 1, wherein flagging items
of information collected from a plurality of computing systems
comprises: comparing collected information for a computing system
with the collected information for each other computing system and
flagging each pair of items that differ between the compared
computing systems.
6. The computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the user
interface displays a two-dimensional data grid at the first level
of granularity.
7. The computer readable media of claim 6, wherein the one or more
visual indications of groups containing flagged items are
color-coded cells of the data grid.
8. The computer readable media of claim 6, wherein the user
interface displays a one-dimensional data grid at the second level
of granularity.
9. The computer readable media of claim 6, wherein the user
interface displays a two-dimensional data grid at the second level
of granularity.
10. The computer readable media of claim 6, wherein the user
interface displays a data tree representing a hierarchy of groups
of the collected information, and a user selection of a node of the
tree control causes a data grid to be displayed at a level of
granularity that corresponds to the selected node.
11. A method comprising: flagging items of information collected
from a plurality of computing systems, the collected information
pertaining to one or more of the configuration and the status of
said computing systems; displaying, on a computing device, a
multi-level user interface that summarizes flagged items at a first
level of granularity by providing one or more visual indications of
groups containing flagged items, and in response to a user
selection of a group containing flagged items at the first level of
granularity, displaying the multi-level user interface at a second
level of granularity, wherein the second level of granularity is
lower than the first level of granularity.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the multi-level user interface
at the second level of granularity summarizes the flagged items in
the selected group by providing one or more visual indications of
sub-groups of the selected group that contain flagged items.
13. The method of claim 11, wherein the multi-level user interface
at the second level of granularity summarizes the flagged items in
the selected group by providing one or more visual indications of
items of the selected group that are flagged.
14. The method of claim 11, wherein flagging items of information
collected from a plurality of computing systems comprises:
comparing the collected information with a set of reference data
and flagging the items of collected information that differ from
the reference data.
15. The method of claim 11, wherein the user interface displays a
two-dimensional data grid at the first level of granularity.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the user interface displays a
data tree representing a hierarchy of groups of the collected
information, and a user selection of a node of the tree control
causes a data grid to be displayed at a level of granularity that
corresponds to the selected node.
17. One or more tangible computer readable media containing
computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a
system to provide a user interface comprising: a first region
displaying an interactive element that visually represents at least
part of a multi-level hierarchy of information, each level
corresponding to one or more of a plurality of items of
information; wherein a highest level of the plurality of levels
corresponds to all of the plurality of items of information, and
wherein each successively lower level of the plurality of levels
corresponds to a narrower grouping within the plurality of items of
information than those items included within an immediately higher
level of the plurality of levels, wherein the visual representation
of at least one level of the interactive element may be expanded or
collapsed in response to user input; wherein a user selection of
one of said levels in said interactive element causes content
associated with the selected level to be displayed, the content
associated with the selected level having an appearance that
indicates whether one or more items of information associated with
the selected level differ from predefined reference
information.
18. The tangible computer readable storage media of claim 18,
wherein each item of information relates to one of a physical
device, a logical device, and configurable software.
19. The tangible computer readable storage media of claim 18,
wherein each item of information relates to one of a virtual
desktop and a remote application.
20. The tangible computer readable storage media of claim 18,
wherein the user interface further comprises: a second display area
that does not overlap the first display area, wherein the content
associated with the selected level is displayed in the second
display area.
Description
RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application claims the benefit of priority from U.S.
Provisional Application No. 61/528,090, entitled "Large Scale
System Health Monitoring and Troubleshooting," filed Aug. 26, 2011.
The content of the above-noted application is hereby incorporated
by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Organizations often manage multiple computing systems
simultaneously. In many cases, several of the computing systems
work together to accomplish a similar task. Examples include
similarly or identically configured servers amongst which work is
split using load balancing techniques. In other cases, each
computing system performs a unique task. As the number of computing
systems being managed grows, ensuring that configuration changes
are made to all relevant systems becomes increasingly difficult.
For example, ensuring that a hotfix is applied to all relevant
computing systems may involve reviewing a large amount of
information. Similarly, monitoring the status of the various
systems, such as each system's health, becomes more difficult as
the number of systems grows.
SUMMARY
[0003] According to one aspect, information collected from a
plurality of computing systems, such as configuration information
or status information, is analyzed and any noteworthy items of
information are flagged. Items of information may be flagged, for
example, because the information does not match the corresponding
information retrieved from another computing system. Items may also
be flagged, for example, because the information does not match a
set of reference information. The items of reference information
may be a textual string or numerical value. Other items of
reference information may be a set of defined criteria, such the
amounts of memory usage that are considered acceptable.
[0004] According to another aspect, information collected from
computing systems may be organized into a hierarchy that may be
displayed as a tree. Each level of the hierarchy may contain one or
more individual items of information. Each level of the hierarchy
may also contain lower levels of the hierarchy, which themselves
contain still lower levels and/or individual items of information.
The hierarchy may be configurable. The tree display of the
hierarchy may be collapsible such that some or all of the lower
levels are not shown.
[0005] According to a further aspect, information collected from
computing systems may be displayed using a data grid. Multiple data
grids may be used to display the information at several levels of
granularity. The levels of granularity may correspond to levels of
the data hierarchy mentioned above. Selecting cells of a data grid
may display more details about the information that the selected
cell summarizes. In some cases, the additional details may be
displayed in the form of a data grid having a lower level of
granularity than the first data grid.
[0006] According to yet another aspect, flagged information may be
summarized using a tree or data grid display. These displays may
include visual indications of flags, such as icons or color coding.
An indication of a flag on a group, such as a node of a tree or a
cell of a data grid, may indicate the presence of at least one
flagged item. Conversely, an unflagged item representing a group
may indicate the absence of flagged items within the group.
[0007] According to a still further aspect, a tree and a data grid
display may be used in conjunction so that the tree allows for the
level of granularity of the data grid to be selected.
[0008] The preceding presents a simplified summary in order to
provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure.
The summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure. It is
intended neither to identify key or critical elements of the
disclosure nor to delineate the scope of the disclosure. The
summary merely presents some concepts of the disclosure in a
simplified form as a prelude to the description below.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0009] The present disclosure is illustrated by way of example and
is not limited in the accompanying figures.
[0010] FIG. 1 illustrates an example operating environment in which
various aspects of the disclosure may be implemented.
[0011] FIG. 2 illustrates a client device that may be used in
accordance with one or more illustrative aspects described
herein.
[0012] FIG. 3 illustrates a client device that may be used in
accordance with one or more illustrative aspects described
herein.
[0013] FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a layout of a user
interface that may be used to display system monitoring
information.
[0014] FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a hierarchy that may be
used to organize information collected from a computing system.
[0015] FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate examples of hierarchies that may be
used to organize information collected from multiple computing
systems.
[0016] FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a user interface containing
a menu area, a tree view area, and a data grid area.
[0017] FIGS. 9-12 illustrates additional examples of user
interfaces containing data grids.
[0018] FIGS. 13 and 14 illustrate examples of a user interface that
may be used to specify the individual items that are to be
collected from computing systems for comparison.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0019] In the following description of the various embodiments,
reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part
hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration various
embodiments in which aspects described herein may be practiced. It
is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and
structural and functional modifications may be made without
departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure.
[0020] As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art upon
reading the following disclosure, various aspects described herein
may be embodied as a method, a data processing system, or a
computer program product. Accordingly, those aspects may take the
form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software
embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware
aspects. Furthermore, such aspects may take the form of a computer
program product stored by one or more computer-readable storage
media having computer-readable program code, or instructions,
embodied in or on the storage media. Any suitable computer readable
storage media may be utilized, including hard disks, CD-ROMs,
optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, and/or any
combination thereof. In addition, various signals representing data
or events as described herein may be transferred between a source
and a destination in the form of electromagnetic waves traveling
through signal-conducting media such as metal wires, optical
fibers, and/or wireless transmission media (e.g., air and/or
space).
[0021] FIG. 1 illustrates an example block diagram of a generic
computing device 101 (e.g., a computer server 106a) in an example
computing environment 100 that may be used according to one or more
illustrative embodiments of the disclosure. According to one or
more aspects, generic computing device 101 may be a server 106a in
a single-server or multi-server desktop virtualization system
configured to provide virtual machines for client access devices.
The generic computing device 101 may have a processor 103 for
controlling overall operation of the server and its associated
components, including random access memory (RAM) 105, read-only
memory (ROM) 107, input/output (I/O) module 109, and memory
115.
[0022] I/O module 109 may include a mouse, keypad, touch screen,
scanner, optical reader, and/or stylus (or other input device(s))
through which a user of generic computing device 101 may provide
input, and may also include one or more of a speaker for providing
audio output and a video display device for providing textual,
audiovisual, and/or graphical output. Software may be stored within
memory 115 and/or other storage to provide instructions to
processor 103 for enabling generic computing device 101 to perform
various functions. For example, memory 115 may store software used
by the generic computing device 101, such as an operating system
117, application programs 119, and an associated database 121.
Alternatively, some or all of the computer executable instructions
for generic computing device 101 may be embodied in hardware or
firmware (not shown).
[0023] The generic computing device 101 may operate in a networked
environment supporting connections to one or more remote computers,
such as terminals 140 (also referred to as client devices). The
terminals 140 may be personal computers or servers that include
many or all of the elements described above with respect to the
generic computing device 101. The network connections depicted in
FIG. 1 include a local area network (LAN) 125 and a wide area
network (WAN) 129, but may also include other networks. When used
in a LAN networking environment, the generic computing device 101
may be connected to the LAN 125 through a network interface or
adapter 123. When used in a WAN networking environment, the generic
computing device 101 may include a modem 127 or other network
interface for establishing communications over the WAN 129, such as
computer network 130 (e.g., the Internet). It will be appreciated
that the network connections shown are illustrative and other means
of establishing a communications link between the computers may be
used.
[0024] Generic computing device 101 and/or terminals 140 may also
be mobile terminals (e.g., mobile phones, smartphones, PDAs,
notebooks, etc.) including various other components, such as a
battery, speaker, and antennas (not shown).
[0025] The disclosure is operational with numerous other general
purpose or special purpose computing system environments or
configurations. Examples of well-known computing systems,
environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use
with the disclosure include, but are not limited to, personal
computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices,
multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top
boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs,
minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing
environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and
the like.
[0026] As shown in FIG. 1, one or more client devices 140 may be in
communication with one or more servers 106a-106n (generally
referred to herein as "server(s) 106"). In some embodiments, the
computing environment 100 may include an appliance installed
between the server(s) 106 and client machine(s) 140. The appliance
can manage client/server connections, and in some cases can load
balance client connections amongst a plurality of backend servers
106.
[0027] The client machine(s) 140 can in some embodiments be
referred to as a single client machine 140 or a single group of
client machines 140, while server(s) 106 may be referred to as a
single server 106 or a single group of servers 106. In some
embodiments a single client machine 140 communicates with more than
one server 106, while in other embodiments a single server 106
communicates with more than one client machine 140. In yet other
embodiments, a single client machine 140 communicates with a single
server 106.
[0028] A client machine 140 can, in some embodiments, be referenced
by any one of the following terms: client machine(s) 140;
client(s); client computer(s); client device(s); client computing
device(s); local machine; remote machine; client node(s);
endpoint(s); endpoint node(s); or a second machine. The server 106,
in some embodiments, may be referenced by any one of the following
terms: server(s), local machine; remote machine; server farm(s),
host computing device(s), or a first machine(s).
[0029] In some embodiments, the client machine 140 may be a virtual
machine. The virtual machine may be any virtual machine, while in
some embodiments the virtual machine may be any virtual machine
managed by a hypervisor developed by Citrix Systems, IBM, VMware,
or any other hypervisor. In some aspects, the virtual machine may
be managed by a hypervisor, while in aspects the virtual machine
may be managed by a hypervisor executing on a server 106 or a
hypervisor executing on a client 140.
[0030] The client machine 140 may execute, operate or otherwise
provide an application that can be any one of the following:
software; a program; executable instructions; a virtual machine; a
hypervisor; a web browser; a web-based client; a client-server
application; a thin-client computing client; an ActiveX control; a
Java applet; software related to voice over internet protocol
(VoIP) communications like a soft IP telephone; an application for
streaming video and/or audio; an application for facilitating
real-time-data communications; a HTTP client; a FTP client; an
Oscar client; a Telnet client; or any other set of executable
instructions. Still other embodiments include a client device 140
that displays application output generated by an application
remotely executing on a server 106 or other remotely located
machine. In these embodiments, the client device 140 can display
the application output in an application window, a browser, or
other output window. In one example, the application is a desktop,
while in other examples the application is an application that
generates a desktop. A desktop may include a graphical shell
providing a user interface for an instance of an operating system
in which local and/or remote applications can be integrated.
Applications, as used herein, are programs that execute after an
instance of an operating system (and, optionally, also the desktop)
has been loaded.
[0031] The server 106, in some embodiments, executes a remote
presentation client or other client or program that uses a
thin-client or remote-display protocol to capture display output
generated by an application executing on a server 106 and transmits
the application display output to a remote client 140. The
thin-client or remote-display protocol can be any one of the
following protocols: the Independent Computing Architecture (ICA)
protocol manufactured by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale,
Fla.; or the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) manufactured by the
Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.
[0032] The computing environment can include more than one server
106A-106N such that the servers 106A-106N are logically grouped
together into a server farm 106. The server farm 106 can include
servers 106 that are geographically dispersed and logically grouped
together in a server farm 106, or servers 106 that are located
proximate to each other and logically grouped together in a server
farm 106. Geographically dispersed servers 106A-106N within a
server farm 106 can, in some embodiments, communicate using a WAN,
MAN, or LAN, where different geographic regions can be
characterized as: different continents; different regions of a
continent; different countries; different states; different cities;
different campuses; different rooms; or any combination of the
preceding geographical locations. In some embodiments the server
farm 106 may be administered as a single entity, while in other
embodiments the server farm 106 can include multiple server farms
106.
[0033] In some embodiments, a server farm 106 can include servers
106 that execute a substantially similar type of operating system
platform (e.g., WINDOWS NT, manufactured by Microsoft Corp. of
Redmond, Wash., UNIX, LINUX, or SNOW LEOPARD.) In other
embodiments, the server farm 106 can include a first group of
servers 106 that execute a first type of operating system platform,
and a second group of servers 106 that execute a second type of
operating system platform. The server farm 106, in other
embodiments, can include servers 106 that execute different types
of operating system platforms.
[0034] The server 106, in some embodiments, can be any server type.
In other embodiments, the server 106 can be any of the following
server types: a file server; an application server; a web server; a
proxy server; an appliance; a network appliance; a gateway; an
application gateway; a gateway server; a virtualization server; a
deployment server; a SSL VPN server; a firewall; a web server; an
application server or as a master application server; a server 106
executing an active directory; or a server 106 executing an
application acceleration program that provides firewall
functionality, application functionality, or load balancing
functionality. In some embodiments, a server 106 may be a RADIUS
server that includes a remote authentication dial-in user service.
In embodiments where the server 106 comprises an appliance, the
server 106 can be an appliance manufactured by any one of the
following manufacturers: the Citrix Application Networking Group;
Silver Peak Systems, Inc.; Riverbed Technology, Inc.; F5 Networks,
Inc.; or Juniper Networks, Inc. Some embodiments include a first
server 106A that receives requests from a client machine 140,
forwards the request to a second server 106n, and responds to the
request generated by the client machine 140 with a response from
the second server 106n. The first server 106A can acquire an
enumeration of applications available to the client machine 140 and
well as address information associated with an application server
106 hosting an application identified within the enumeration of
applications. The first server 106A can then present a response to
the client's request using a web interface, and communicate
directly with the client 140 to provide the client 140 with access
to an identified application.
[0035] The server 106 can, in some embodiments, execute any one of
the following applications: a thin-client application using a
thin-client protocol to transmit application display data to a
client; a remote display presentation application; any portion of
the CITRIX ACCESS SUITE by Citrix Systems, Inc. like the METAFRAME
or CITRIX PRESENTATION SERVER; MICROSOFT WINDOWS Terminal Services
manufactured by the Microsoft Corporation; or an ICA client,
developed by Citrix Systems, Inc. Another embodiment includes a
server 106 that is an application server such as: an email server
that provides email services such as MICROSOFT EXCHANGE
manufactured by the Microsoft Corporation; a web or Internet
server; a desktop sharing server; a collaboration server; or any
other type of application server. Still other embodiments include a
server 106 that executes any one of the following types of hosted
servers applications: GOTOMEETING provided by Citrix Online
Division, Inc.; WEBEX provided by WebEx, Inc. of Santa Clara,
Calif.; or Microsoft Office LIVE MEETING provided by Microsoft
Corporation.
[0036] Client machines 140 can, in some embodiments, be a client
node that seeks access to resources provided by a server 106. In
other embodiments, the server 106 may provide clients 140 or client
nodes with access to hosted resources. The server 106, in some
embodiments, functions as a master node such that it communicates
with one or more clients 140 or servers 106. In some embodiments,
the master node can identify and provide address information
associated with a server 106 hosting a requested application, to
one or more clients 140 or servers 106. In still other embodiments,
the master node can be a server farm 106, a client 140, a cluster
of client nodes 140, or an appliance.
[0037] One or more clients 140 and/or one or more servers 106 can
transmit data over a network 130 installed between machines and
appliances within the computing environment 100. The network 130
can comprise one or more sub-networks, and can be installed between
any combination of the clients 140, servers 106, computing machines
and appliances included within the computing environment 100. In
some embodiments, the network 130 can be: a local-area network
(LAN); a metropolitan area network (MAN); a wide area network
(WAN); a primary network 104 comprised of multiple sub-networks
located between the client machines 140 and the servers 106; a
primary public network 130 (e.g., the Internet) with a private
sub-network; a primary private network 130 with a public
sub-network; or a primary private network 130 with a private
sub-network. Still further embodiments include a network 130 that
can be any of the following network types: a point to point
network; a broadcast network; a telecommunications network; a data
communication network; a computer network; an ATM (Asynchronous
Transfer Mode) network; a SONET (Synchronous Optical Network)
network; a SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) network; a wireless
network; a wireline network; or a network that includes a wireless
link where the wireless link can be an infrared channel or
satellite band. The network topology of the network 130 can differ
within different embodiments, possible network topologies include:
a bus network topology; a star network topology; a ring network
topology; a repeater-based network topology; or a tiered-star
network topology. Additional embodiments may include a network of
mobile telephone networks that use a protocol to communicate among
mobile devices, where the protocol can be any one of the following:
AMPS; TDMA; CDMA; GSM; GPRS UMTS; or any other protocol able to
transmit data among mobile devices.
[0038] Illustrated in FIG. 2 is an embodiment of a computing device
200, where the client machine 140 and server 106 illustrated in
FIG. 1 may be deployed as and/or executed on any embodiment of the
computing device 200 illustrated and described herein. Included
within the computing device 200 is a system bus 250 that
communicates with the following components: a central processing
unit 221; a main memory 222; storage memory 228; an input/output
(I/O) controller 223; display devices 224A-224N; an installation
device 216; and a network interface 218. In one embodiment, the
storage memory 228 includes: an operating system, software
routines, and a client agent 220. The I/O controller 223, in some
embodiments, is further connected to a keyboard 226, and a pointing
device 227. Other embodiments may include an I/O controller 223
connected to more than one input/output device 230A-230N.
[0039] FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a computing device 300,
where the client machine 140 and server 106 illustrated in FIG. 1
can be deployed as and/or executed on any embodiment of the
computing device 300 illustrated and described herein. Included
within the computing device 300 is a system bus 350 that
communicates with the following components: a bridge 370, and a
first I/O device 330a. In another embodiment, the bridge 370 is in
further communication with the main central processing unit 321,
where the central processing unit 321 can further communicate with
a second I/O device 330b, a main memory 322, and a cache memory
340. Included within the central processing unit 321, are I/O
ports, a memory port 303, and a main processor.
[0040] Embodiments of the computing machine 300 can include a
central processing unit 321 characterized by any one of the
following component configurations: logic circuits that respond to
and process instructions fetched from the main memory unit 322; a
microprocessor unit, such as: those manufactured by Intel
Corporation; those manufactured by Motorola Corporation; those
manufactured by Transmeta Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif.; those
manufactured by International Business Machines; a processor such
as those manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices; or any other
combination of logic circuits. Still other embodiments of the
central processing unit 321 may include any combination of the
following: a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a central
processing unit with a single processing core, a central processing
unit with two processing cores, or a central processing unit with
more than two processing cores.
[0041] While FIG. 3 illustrates a computing device 300 that
includes a single central processing unit 321, in some embodiments
the computing device 300 can include one or more processing units
321. In these embodiments, the computing device 300 may store and
execute firmware or other executable instructions that, when
executed, direct the one or more processing units 321 to
simultaneously execute instructions or to simultaneously execute
instructions on a single piece of data. In other embodiments, the
computing device 300 may store and execute firmware or other
executable instructions that, when executed, direct the one or more
processing units to each execute a section of a group of
instructions. For example, each processing unit 321 may be
instructed to execute a portion of a program or a particular module
within a program.
[0042] In some embodiments, the processing unit 321 can include one
or more processing cores. For example, the processing unit 321 may
have two cores, four cores, eight cores, etc. In some embodiments,
the processing unit 321 may comprise one or more parallel
processing cores. The processing cores of the processing unit 321,
may in some embodiments access available memory as a global address
space, or in other embodiments, memory within the computing device
300 can be segmented and assigned to a particular core within the
processing unit 321. In some embodiments, the one or more
processing cores or processors in the computing device 300 can each
access local memory. In still other embodiments, memory within the
computing device 300 can be shared amongst one or more processors
or processing cores, while other memory can be accessed by
particular processors or subsets of processors. In embodiments
where the computing device 300 includes more than one processing
unit, the multiple processing units can be included in a single
integrated circuit (IC). These multiple processors, in some
embodiments, can be linked together by an internal high speed bus,
which may be referred to as an element interconnect bus.
[0043] In embodiments where the computing device 300 includes one
or more processing units 321, or a processing unit 321 including
one or more processing cores, the processors can execute a single
instruction simultaneously on multiple pieces of data (SIMD), or in
other embodiments can execute multiple instructions simultaneously
on multiple pieces of data (MIMD). In some embodiments, the
computing device 100 can include any number of SIMD and MIMD
processors.
[0044] The computing device 300, in some embodiments, can include a
graphics processor or a graphics processing unit (Not Shown). The
graphics processing unit can include any combination of software
and hardware, and can further input graphics data and graphics
instructions, render a graphic from the inputted data and
instructions, and output the rendered graphic. In some embodiments,
the graphics processing unit can be included within the processing
unit 321. In other embodiments, the computing device 300 can
include one or more processing units 321, where at least one
processing unit 321 is dedicated to processing and rendering
graphics.
[0045] One embodiment of the computing machine 300 includes a
central processing unit 321 that communicates with cache memory 340
via a secondary bus also known as a backside bus, while another
embodiment of the computing machine 300 includes a central
processing unit 321 that communicates with cache memory via the
system bus 350. The local system bus 350 can, in some embodiments,
also be used by the central processing unit to communicate with
more than one type of I/O device 330a-330n. In some embodiments,
the local system bus 350 can be any one of the following types of
buses: a VESA VL bus; an ISA bus; an EISA bus; a MicroChannel
Architecture (MCA) bus; a PCI bus; a PCI-X bus; a PCI-Express bus;
or a NuBus. Other embodiments of the computing machine 300 include
an I/O device 330a-330n that includes a video display 224 that
communicates with the central processing unit 321. Still other
versions of the computing machine 300 include a processor 321
connected to an I/O device 330a-330n via any one of the following
connections: HyperTransport, Rapid I/O, or InfiniBand. Further
embodiments of the computing machine 300 include a processor 321
that communicates with one I/O device 330a using a local
interconnect bus and a second I/O device 330b using a direct
connection.
[0046] The computing device 300, in some embodiments, includes a
main memory unit 322 and cache memory 340. The cache memory 340 can
be any memory type, and in some embodiments can be any one of the
following types of memory: SRAM; BSRAM; or EDRAM. Other embodiments
include cache memory 340 and a main memory unit 322 that can be any
one of the following types of memory: Static random access memory
(SRAM), Burst SRAM or SynchBurst SRAM (BSRAM); Dynamic random
access memory (DRAM); Fast Page Mode DRAM (FPM DRAM); Enhanced DRAM
(EDRAM), Extended Data Output RAM (EDO RAM); Extended Data Output
DRAM (EDO DRAM); Burst Extended Data Output DRAM (BEDO DRAM);
Enhanced DRAM (EDRAM); synchronous DRAM (SDRAM); JEDEC SRAM; PC100
SDRAM; Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM); Enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM);
SyncLink DRAM (SLDRAM); Direct Rambus DRAM (DRDRAM); Ferroelectric
RAM (FRAM); or any other type of memory. Further embodiments
include a central processing unit 321 that can access the main
memory 322 via: a system bus 350; a memory port 303; or any other
connection, bus or port that allows the processor 321 to access
memory 322.
[0047] One embodiment of the computing device 200/300 provides
support for any one of the following installation devices 216: a
CD-ROM drive, a CD-R/RW drive, a DVD-ROM drive, tape drives of
various formats, USB device, a bootable medium, a bootable CD, a
bootable CD for GNU/Linux distribution such as KNOPPIX.RTM., a
hard-drive or any other device suitable for installing applications
or software. Applications can in some embodiments include a client
agent 220, or any portion of a client agent 220. The computing
device 200/300 may further include a storage device 228 that can be
either one or more hard disk drives, or one or more redundant
arrays of independent disks; where the storage device is configured
to store an operating system, software, programs applications, or
at least a portion of the client agent 220. A further embodiment of
the computing device 200, 300 includes an installation device 216
that is used as the storage device 228.
[0048] The computing device 200, 300 may further include a network
interface 218 to interface to a Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area
Network (WAN) or the Internet through a variety of connections
including, but not limited to, standard telephone lines, LAN or WAN
links (e.g., 802.11, T1, T3, 56 kb, X.25, SNA, DECNET), broadband
connections (e.g., ISDN, Frame Relay, ATM, Gigabit Ethernet,
Ethernet-over-SONET), wireless connections, or some combination of
any or all of the above. Connections can also be established using
a variety of communication protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, IPX, SPX,
NetBIOS, Ethernet, ARCNET, SONET, SDH, Fiber Distributed Data
Interface (FDDI), RS232, RS485, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE
802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, CDMA, GSM, WiMax and direct asynchronous
connections). One version of the computing device 200, 300 includes
a network interface 218 able to communicate with additional
computing devices 200', 300' via any type and/or form of gateway or
tunneling protocol such as Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport
Layer Security (TLS), or the Citrix Gateway Protocol manufactured
by Citrix Systems, Inc. Versions of the network interface 218 can
comprise any one of: a built-in network adapter; a network
interface card; a PCMCIA network card; a card bus network adapter;
a wireless network adapter; a USB network adapter; a modem; or any
other device suitable for interfacing the computing device 200, 300
to a network capable of communicating and performing the methods
and systems described herein.
[0049] Embodiments of the computing device 200, 300 include any one
of the following I/O devices 230a-230n: a keyboard 226; a pointing
device 227; mice; trackpads; an optical pen; trackballs;
microphones; drawing tablets; video displays; speakers; inkjet
printers; laser printers; and dye-sublimation printers; or any
other input/output device able to perform the methods and systems
described herein. An I/O controller 223 may in some embodiments
connect to multiple I/O devices 230a-230n to control the one or
more I/O devices. Some embodiments of the I/O devices 230a-230n may
be configured to provide storage or an installation medium 216,
while others may provide a universal serial bus (USB) interface for
receiving USB storage devices such as the USB Flash Drive line of
devices manufactured by Twintech Industry, Inc. Still other
embodiments include an I/O device 230 that may be a bridge between
the system bus 250 and an external communication bus, such as: a
USB bus; an Apple Desktop Bus; an RS-232 serial connection; a SCSI
bus; a FireWire bus; a FireWire 800 bus; an Ethernet bus; an
AppleTalk bus; a Gigabit Ethernet bus; an Asynchronous Transfer
Mode bus; a HIPPI bus; a Super HIPPI bus; a SerialPlus bus; a
SO/LAMP bus; a FibreChannel bus; or a Serial Attached small
computer system interface bus.
[0050] In some embodiments, the computing machine 200, 300 can
connect to multiple display devices 224a-224n, in other embodiments
the computing device 100 can connect to a single display device
224, while in still other embodiments the computing device 200, 300
connects to display devices 224a-224n that are the same type or
form of display, or to display devices that are different types or
forms. Embodiments of the display devices 224a-224n can be
supported and enabled by the following: one or multiple I/O devices
230a-230n; the I/O controller 223; a combination of I/O device(s)
230a-230n and the I/O controller 223; any combination of hardware
and software able to support a display device 224a-224n; any type
and/or form of video adapter, video card, driver, and/or library to
interface, communicate, connect or otherwise use the display
devices 224a-224n. The computing device 200, 300 may in some
embodiments be configured to use one or multiple display devices
224A-224N, these configurations include: having multiple connectors
to interface to multiple display devices 224A-224N; having multiple
video adapters, with each video adapter connected to one or more of
the display devices 224A-224N; having an operating system
configured to support multiple displays 224A-224N; using circuits
and software included within the computing device 200 to connect to
and use multiple display devices 224A-224N; and executing software
on the main computing device 200 and multiple secondary computing
devices to enable the main computing device 200 to use a secondary
computing device's display as a display device 224A-224N for the
main computing device 200. Still other embodiments of the computing
device 200 may include multiple display devices 224A-224N provided
by multiple secondary computing devices and connected to the main
computing device 200 via a network.
[0051] In some embodiments, the computing machine 200 can execute
any operating system, while in other embodiments the computing
machine 200 can execute any of the following operating systems:
versions of the MICROSOFT WINDOWS operating systems such as WINDOWS
3.x; WINDOWS 95; WINDOWS 98; WINDOWS 2000; WINDOWS NT 3.51; WINDOWS
NT 4.0; WINDOWS CE; WINDOWS XP; WINDOWS VISTA; and WINDOWS 7; the
different releases of the Unix and Linux operating systems; any
version of the MAC OS manufactured by Apple Computer; OS/2,
manufactured by International Business Machines; any embedded
operating system; any real-time operating system; any open source
operating system; any proprietary operating system; any operating
systems for mobile computing devices; or any other operating
system. In still another embodiment, the computing machine 200 can
execute multiple operating systems. For example, the computing
machine 200 can execute PARALLELS or another virtualization
platform that can execute or manage a virtual machine executing a
first operating system, while the computing machine 200 executes a
second operating system different from the first operating
system.
[0052] The computing machine 200 can be embodied in any one of the
following computing devices: a computing workstation; a desktop
computer; a laptop or notebook computer; a server; a handheld
computer; a mobile telephone; a portable telecommunication device;
a media playing device; a gaming system; a mobile computing device;
a netbook; a device of the IPOD family of devices manufactured by
Apple Computer; any one of the PLAYSTATION family of devices
manufactured by the Sony Corporation; any one of the Nintendo
family of devices manufactured by Nintendo Co; any one of the XBOX
family of devices manufactured by the Microsoft Corporation; or any
other type and/or form of computing, telecommunications or media
device that is capable of communication and that has sufficient
processor power and memory capacity to perform the methods and
systems described herein. In other embodiments the computing
machine 100 can be a mobile device such as any one of the following
mobile devices: a JAVA-enabled cellular telephone or personal
digital assistant (PDA), such as the i55sr, i58sr, i85s, i88s,
i90c, i95c1, or the im1100, all of which are manufactured by
Motorola Corp; the 6035 or the 7135, manufactured by Kyocera; the
i300 or i330, manufactured by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd; the
TREO 180, 270, 600, 650, 680, 700p, 700w, or 750 smart phone
manufactured by Palm, Inc; any computing device that has different
processors, operating systems, and input devices consistent with
the device; or any other mobile computing device capable of
performing the methods and systems described herein. In still other
embodiments, the computing device 200 can be any one of the
following mobile computing devices: any one series of Blackberry,
or other handheld device manufactured by Research In Motion
Limited; the iPhone manufactured by Apple Computer; Palm Pre; a
Pocket PC; a Pocket PC Phone; or any other handheld mobile
device.
[0053] In some embodiments, the computing device 200 may have
different processors, operating systems, and input devices
consistent with the device. For example, in one embodiment, the
computing device 200 is a TREO 180, 270, 600, 650, 680, 700p, 700w,
or 750 smart phone manufactured by Palm, Inc. In some of these
embodiments, the TREO smart phone is operated under the control of
the PalmOS operating system and includes a stylus input device as
well as a five-way navigator device.
[0054] In other embodiments the computing device 200 is a mobile
device, such as a JAVA-enabled cellular telephone or personal
digital assistant (PDA), such as the i55sr, i58sr, i85s, i88s,
i90c, i95c1, or the im1100, all of which are manufactured by
Motorola Corp. of Schaumburg, Ill., the 6035 or the 7135,
manufactured by Kyocera of Kyoto, Japan, or the i300 or i330,
manufactured by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., of Seoul, Korea. In
some embodiments, the computing device 200 is a mobile device
manufactured by Nokia of Finland, or by Sony Ericsson Mobile
Communications AB of Lund, Sweden.
[0055] In still other embodiments, the computing device 200 is a
Blackberry handheld or smart phone, such as the devices
manufactured by Research In Motion Limited, including the
Blackberry 7100 series, 8700 series, 7700 series, 7200 series, the
Blackberry 7520, or the Blackberry Pearl 8100. In yet other
embodiments, the computing device 200 is a smart phone, Pocket PC,
Pocket PC Phone, or other handheld mobile device supporting
Microsoft Windows Mobile Software. Moreover, the computing device
200 can be any workstation, desktop computer, laptop or notebook
computer, server, handheld computer, mobile telephone, any other
computer, or other form of computing or telecommunications device
that is capable of communication and that has sufficient processor
power and memory capacity to perform the operations described
herein.
[0056] In some embodiments, the computing device 200 is a digital
audio player. In one of these embodiments, the computing device 200
is a digital audio player such as the Apple IPOD, IPOD Touch, IPOD
NANO, and IPOD SHUFFLE lines of devices, manufactured by Apple
Computer of Cupertino, Calif. In another of these embodiments, the
digital audio player may function as both a portable media player
and as a mass storage device. In other embodiments, the computing
device 200 is a digital audio player such as the DigitalAudioPlayer
Select MP3 players, manufactured by Samsung Electronics America, of
Ridgefield Park, N.J., or the Motorola m500 or m25 Digital Audio
Players, manufactured by Motorola Inc. of Schaumburg, Ill. In still
other embodiments, the computing device 200 is a portable media
player, such as the Zen Vision W, the Zen Vision series, the Zen
Portable Media Center devices, or the Digital MP3 line of MP3
players, manufactured by Creative Technologies Ltd. In yet other
embodiments, the computing device 200 is a portable media player or
digital audio player supporting file formats including, but not
limited to, MP3, WAV, M4A/AAC, WMA Protected AAC, AIFF, Audible
audiobook, Apple Lossless audio file formats and .mov, .m4v, and
.mp4MPEG-4 (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC) video file formats.
[0057] In some embodiments, the computing device 200 comprises a
combination of devices, such as a mobile phone combined with a
digital audio player or portable media player. In one of these
embodiments, the computing device 200 is a Motorola RAZR or
Motorola ROKR line of combination digital audio players and mobile
phones. In another of these embodiments, the computing device 200
is an iPhone smartphone, manufactured by Apple Computer of
Cupertino, Calif.
[0058] FIGS. 1-3 show a high-level architecture of an illustrative
desktop virtualization system. As shown, the desktop virtualization
system may be single-server or multi-server system, including at
least one virtualization server 106 configured to provide virtual
desktops and/or virtual applications to one or more client access
devices 140. As used herein, a desktop refers to a graphical
environment or space in which one or more applications may be
hosted and/or executed. A desktop may include a graphical shell
providing a user interface for an instance of an operating system
in which local and/or remote applications can be integrated.
Applications, as used herein, are programs that execute after an
instance of an operating system (and, optionally, also the desktop)
has been loaded. Each instance of the operating system may be
physical (e.g., one operating system per device) or virtual (e.g.,
many instances of an OS running on a single device). Each
application may be executed on a local device, or executed on a
remotely located device (e.g., remoted).
[0059] The systems and architectures described above with reference
to FIGS. 1-3, as well as other systems and architectures, may be
used to implement the functionality described below.
[0060] FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a layout of a user
interface that may be used to display system monitoring
information. In this example, display 400 includes four areas that
may be used for accessing or displaying information about one or
more computing systems. The presence, arrangement, and proportions
of areas 401, 402, 403, and 404 shown in FIG. 4 are merely an
example, and many other layouts are possible.
[0061] Menu area 401 may display drop-down menus used to access
various tools or options. Menu area 401 may also display summary
information and include other interfaces to various tools or
options, such as buttons or check boxes. The tools and/or options
accessible through menu area 401 may affect or control the data
displayed in the other areas of display 400, such as Tree View Area
402, Data Grid Area 403, and Utility Output Area 404. A user may,
for example, reconfigure display 400 using options accessible from
the menu area. An example of reconfiguring display 400 is hiding
utility output area 404, or another of the areas, from view. Other
examples of the types of tools and/or options accessible through
menu area 401 include controls that alter the contents of the tree
shown in tree view area 402, tools that define the data to be
displayed in data grid area 403, and tools that display output in
utility output area 404. The foregoing are merely examples, and any
type of tools, controls, information displays, etc. may be included
in menu area 401.
[0062] Display 400 may be used to monitor the status and/or
configuration of one or more computing systems. Each computing
system may be located on a dedicated physical machine, but this is
not required. Several computing systems may be located on a single
physical machine. For example, a single physical computer may run
multiple virtualized computing systems, where each computing system
runs its own operating system. The configuration or status of each
of these computing systems, as well as other computing systems, may
be displayed using display 400.
[0063] The information that may be aggregated and displayed using a
display such as display 400 is unlimited. In some embodiments, the
information this is displayed or summarized on display 400 is
configurable. Thus, a user or system administrator may select the
information to be displayed. Examples of types of information that
may be displayed in display 400 include configuration information
and status information. Examples of configuration information for a
computing system include the identity and configuration of its
operating system. This may include which hotfixes or patches have
been applied the operating system; which components of the
operating system, including system services, are enable or disabled
and any options associated with such components; the date, size,
checksum or hash associated with system files; version information
for drivers; system registry keys; etc. Configuration information
may also include the configuration of client software in addition
to the operating system. Examples of client software configuration
information include what client software is installed, including
which hotfixes or patches have been applied; how the client
software is configured, including if any components are enabled or
disabled; the status of any files of interest, such as their date,
size, checksum, or hash; etc. Additional examples of configuration
information include hardware configuration. Examples include the
presence and version of components, such as processors, memory,
hard disks, or other connected devices. Still further examples
include network configuration information, such as IP addresses,
connected storage volumes, etc.
[0064] Examples of status information for a computing system
include processor load, temperature, error logs or error messages,
available memory, a sampling of a server's response time to various
requests, the number of simultaneous users of a system, local or
remote storage usage, logs of application changes, the number of
busy threads, numbers of computing requests that are ready to be
executed, queued to be executed, or currently being executed, etc.
Status information may include, for example, system health
information.
[0065] Configuration, status, or any other information may be
collected from any number of computing systems. An example of
information that may be displayed in utility output area 404 is the
progress of collecting information from various computing systems.
Once collected, the information may be saved and used for future
comparisons. In some embodiments, the collected information is
simply read from a file, a database, or from another memory. Thus,
the process of collecting the information from computing systems
may be separated from the process of displaying the information. In
some embodiments, information may be collected by querying remote
computing systems using, for example, a script such as a PowerShell
script. The systems to be queried may be predefined, or they may be
discovered automatically by locating, for example, all of the
computing systems within a network group. Examples include all of
the computing systems in the same domain as the system sending the
queries, all of the servers associated with, for example, a desktop
delivery controller. In still further embodiments, information may
be collected by it being automatically reported to a database or
other system even absent a query. Some embodiments may combine some
or all of these methods of data collection.
[0066] In many cases, the amount of information collected is too
large for a linear display to be useful. For example, if a system
administrator of two 300-computing system server farms were to
check the available memory for these two server farms, the
collected information would include six-hundred individual memory
amounts for the system administrator to review. In this example,
the system administrator may only be interested in whether the
amount of available memory on the computing systems is atypical or
problematic. This may be determined by comparing each piece of
collected information with other pieces of collected information.
In this example, atypically large or small amounts of available
memory may then be flagged for the user. A user may also configure
the user interface to flag when the collected information meets
certain thresholds or otherwise matches certain criteria. For
example, a user may configure the user interface to flag systems
where the available memory is less that 1 GB, and to not flag other
systems. A variety of other types of criteria may be used.
[0067] If no flags are shown, a system administrator or other user
may conclude that no further investigation is needed. If flags are
shown, a system administrator may seek to view additional details
about the systems from which the flagged information was collected.
These details may be viewed individually, or in comparison to other
computing systems, including individual computing systems or an
average of some or all of the computing systems for which
information was collected.
[0068] A useful tool for investigating the configuration and/or
status of large numbers of computing systems is to compare
information collected from the monitored computing systems with a
set of reference data. Systems whose collected information does not
match the reference data or whose collected information falls
outside the bounds defined by the reference data may be
flagged.
[0069] An example of reference data is the information collected
from a "golden machine" that is known to have the configuration or
status characteristics that are sought. In some cases, the
reference data may be retrieved from one or more "golden machines"
on a continual or periodic basis. In other cases, the reference
data may be saved, and even the original "golden machine" may be
flagged if its configuration no longer matches the saved reference
data. Reference data may also be manually specified, and need not
have come from a "golden machine" or other computing system.
[0070] More than one configuration of computing system may be
monitored. For example, some computing systems may be configured
for providing remote desktops while other computing systems may be
configured for serving web pages. The remote desktop systems may be
assigned to one group, and the web server systems may be assigned
to another group. Each group (or subgroup) may have its own set of
reference data. Alternatively, the collected information for any
one computing system may be compared only against other systems in
the same group or subgroup for the purpose of flagging differences.
This may be useful because certain differences between these group
of machines are intentional and a user may not want detection of
those differences to raise a flag. Groups may be defined by a user
or system administrator and stored in memory, such as in an XML
file. Default groups may also be discovered automatically based on,
for example, type information, detected geographical location, IP
addresses, domain membership, etc.
[0071] Tree view area 402 and data grid area 403 may be used
separately or in combination. Each provide useful ways of
displaying information collected from a group of computing systems,
including displaying the presence or absence of any flags. When
used together, tree view area 402 may be used to display a
hierarchical organization of the information collected from
computing systems. Data grid area 403 may be used to show details
of each node of the tree shown in tree view area 402.
[0072] FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a hierarchy that may be
used to organize information collected from a computing system.
While this hierarchy may be purely logical, it may also be
displayed as a tree in tree view area 402. The example of FIG. 5
shows information about computing system 500 (labeled "Computer
A"). The information about computing system 500 may be sub-divided
into two groups: hardware information 501 and software information
502. The hardware information group 501 includes processor
information group 511, memory information group 512, and BIOS
information group 512. Examples of processor information include
the type of processor(s) used by the computing system and current
or historical processor utilization. Examples of memory information
include the type(s) and amount(s) of memory available to a
computing system, current or historical memory utilization, and any
error information, such as a hard disk's automated error reporting.
Examples of BIOS information include the type of BIOS used and each
of the BIOS settings. Of course, may other examples of hardware
information exist and may optionally be included in the information
that is collected and monitored. Although a default information
hierarchy may be used, a user may also specify the information to
be collected and the organization of that information into a
hierarchy. Examples of criteria that may be used to group nodes and
subnodes in the information hierarchy include type information,
such as setting types or machine types, geographical location of
the corresponding computing system, computing system status,
whether a computing system or component is healthy, IP addresses,
domain membership or other group membership, etc.
[0073] Where multiple computing systems operate on the same
physical machine, hardware information may be reported for each
computing system even where it may be duplicative. Alternatively,
each computing system running on the same physical machine may be
grouped together in the tree hierarchies such as the one seen in
FIG. 5. For example, if "Computer A" were running two independent
computing systems, software 502 may represent the first computing
system, and a second software group (not shown) may be used to
represent the second computing system. Both software groups may be
displayed as child nodes of "Computer A."
[0074] FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a hierarchy that may be
used to organize information collected from multiple computing
systems. Each computing system may run on the same physical
machine, or some or all of the computing systems may run on
separate physical machines. Where several computing systems run on
the same physical machine, the hierarchy may reflect the common
hardware, as discussed above. In the example of FIG. 6, "Domain
XYZ" is a group (600) that includes computing systems 601-604
(labeled "Computer A," "Computer B," etc.). Thus, the information
about computing systems 601-604 have been grouped together.
Additional groups containing additional computing systems may be
included. While the example of a domain is used in the example of
FIG. 6, other methods of grouping computing systems may be used,
including a manual assignment of computers to user-defined
groups.
[0075] FIG. 6 illustrates that the entire hierarchy need not be
displayed. Computing system 601 has been expanded to show hardware
node 621 and software node 641, as well as respective sub-nodes
631-633 and 651-653. Some or all of subnodes 631-633 and 651-653
may be expandable further. For example, if computing system 601
includes two processors, then these processors may be grouped under
processor node 631, which may be expanded to include a separate
node for each of the processors. Conversely, the sub-nodes for
computing systems 602-604 are not shown. The sub-nodes each of
these systems may be displayed by, for example, double clicking on
the appropriate node of the tree. Node 600 may also be collapsed
such that none of computing systems 601-604 are displayed
individually.
[0076] The hierarchical organization of the information shown in
FIGS. 5 and 6 may be used to summarize the collected information.
For example, notice that nodes 603 and 604 are displayed
differently from how nodes 601 and 602 are displayed. The different
display of nodes 603 and 604 may be a visual indicating that
information falling under nodes 603 and 604 has been flagged.
Instead of, or in addition to, the example of a different icon seen
in FIG. 6, other visual indications that data has been flagged may
be used. For example the icon for a flagged node may be displayed
in a different color or may be highlighted in a different color
than the icon for a non-flagged node. Icons are not necessary, and
different color text, highlighting, or other visual alterations may
be used to show that a node has been flagged.
[0077] As discussed above, information may be flagged because it
doesn't match other systems in a group or it doesn't match
reference data. In the example of FIG. 6, the differing icons for
nodes 603 and/or 604 may be investigated by expanding these nodes.
When the flagged node is expanded, one or more sub-nodes will be
flagged, indicating the location(s) in the hierarchy of the flagged
information. In other words, a flagged node indicates that at least
one item contained in the group of information represented by the
node has been flagged. The individual items of flagged information
may ultimately be displayed at the lowest levels of the hierarchy.
Alternatively, selecting a flagged node at the lowest level of the
hierarchy may cause a second display to open presenting the flagged
information. Additional, unflagged information that also
corresponds to the node may be displayed as well. Selecting
unflagged nodes may also cause a second display to open presenting
the unflagged information that corresponds to the node. The
information corresponding to a node may be displayed, for example,
in data grid area 403 of FIG. 4. Selecting a node that is not at
the lowest level of the hierarchy may also cause information
corresponding to that node to be displayed. The information
corresponding to a node may be displayed in a list or table format.
Also, the information corresponding to a node may be displayed as a
comparison to other information. Examples of how comparisons
between items of information may be displayed are discussed in more
detail below with reference to FIGS. 8-12.
[0078] Flagging information in the tree view of the information
hierarchy allows for easy verification that all systems are
configured correctly and/or performing optimally. If the top level
of the hierarchy shows no flags, then all of the collected
information matches the relevant reference data. Where the
computing systems are compared against one another, the absence of
flags at the top level of the hierarchy indicates that the
collected data for each of the computing systems matches. A user
may perceive a need to explore lower levels of the hierarchy only
if a flag is present. The hierarchical organization allows for the
flagged data to be identified quickly. For example, the computing
systems for which a misconfiguration (or other flagged condition)
was detected may be displayed at the next lower level of the
hierarchy, and whether the misconfiguration relates to hardware or
software may be displayed at the level below that. Proceeding to
still lower levels may reveal precisely what the misconfiguration
is. Thus, flagged data may be identified easily, even when the set
of computing systems being checked becomes large. Similarly, the
top levels of the hierarchy may summarize the collected data
succinctly, even when the set of computing systems being checked
becomes large.
[0079] The reference data against which the information collected
from a computing system is compared is not necessarily the same for
each computing system that is grouped together in the tree view
hierarchy, such as the one of FIG. 6. For example, in FIG. 6,
"Computer C" (represented by node 603) may be compared to a
different set of reference data than "Computer D" (represented by
node 604). This may be preferable, for example, because these
computing systems are configured for different purposes. It is also
possible that the groupings seen in the hierarchy do correspond to
the reference data to which the collected information for a
computing system is compared.
[0080] FIG. 7 illustrates another example of a hierarchy that may
be used to organize information collected from multiple computing
systems. FIG. 7 is similar to the hierarchies shown in FIGS. 5 and
6, but it illustrates more possibilities for how information may be
grouped. Nodes 702 and 703 of FIG. 7 correspond to two desktop
delivery controllers. Node 704 corresponds to virtual desktop
access servers. These virtual desktop access servers have been
separated into two groups ("Group A," at node 711 and "Group B," at
node 712). The difference between "Group A" and "Group B" may be
purely logical. Alternatively, any number of real differences may
separate "Group A" from "Group B," such as differences in server
location, capabilities, configuration, etc.
[0081] Node 701 corresponds to information for the entire server
farm shown in FIG. 7. This information is not necessarily specific
to any one computing system in the farm. Rather, it relates to the
configuration or utilization of the entire server farm. For
example, node 721 may represent the collective utilization and/or
configuration of all of the controllers in the server farm.
Similarly, node 723 may represent the collective utilization and/or
configuration of the virtual desktop access servers in the server
farm. Node 722 may represent policies or other information common
to the group. This information, like the other information
collected, may be flagged based on the result of a comparison to
reference data or to other collected data, such as data from other
server farms.
[0082] FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a user interface containing
a menu area 860, a tree view area 811, and a data grid area 850.
Tree view area 811 includes four top-level nodes 812-815 and three
sub-nodes 816-818. If each of nodes 813-818 were expanded,
additional sub-nodes may be displayed. The data in tree view 811 is
user-configurable. As seen by tabs 801 and 802, various different
collections of data may be loaded into the tree view area 811.
Additional collections of data may be loaded using the "load" drop
down menu 841.
[0083] In the example of FIG. 8, the tree view may or may not
include a visual indication of flagged data. A data grid containing
such indications may be generated by clicking "Compare" button
821.
[0084] The data grid 850 of FIG. 8 includes a two dimensional grid
that includes flags for when differences between the systems of the
data grid are found. The flags may be shown by color and/or by a
cross-hatched or other visual indication. In FIG. 8, cells 831,
832, 833, 835, and 836 are flagged, but cell 834 is not flagged.
This indicates that the data collected for the two systems compared
by each of cells 831, 832, 833, 835, and 836 differs, but the data
collected for the two systems compared by cell 834 does not
differ.
[0085] Although only one type of flag is shown in FIG. 8, several
different types of flags may be used. For example, cells of a data
grid may be colored green where no flags have been raised, yellow
here flags have been raised for configuration issues, and red where
flags have been raised for system health issues. Similarly,
information in addition to the flags may be displayed in a data
grid.
[0086] Data grid 850 is shown at the level of entire computing
systems, but the comparison may be performed at other levels. For
example, entire groups of computing systems may be compared.
Another example is that only collected information related to
software may be compared across the systems.
[0087] Clicking on, or otherwise selecting, individual cells of a
data grid 850 may load a data grid at the next lower level of
granularity. For example, selecting a cell of the data grid 850 may
load a new data grid indicating whether differences were found
between the two systems being compared with respect to hardware and
software. The information hierarchies of FIGS. 5-7 illustrate
examples of the levels of granularity at which data grids may be
generated. In some embodiments where the information hierarchy is
viewable, such as embodiments including tree view area 402,
clicking on various levels of the hierarchy, or otherwise selecting
the various levels, may load data grids at a corresponding level of
granularity. The tree view of the information hierarchy may also be
used to select individual computing systems or components thereof
to be displayed in the data grid area.
[0088] A one-dimensional grid may be used in place of the
two-dimensional grid shown in FIG. 8 where the collected data for
each system is compared to reference data instead of to the data
for other systems.
[0089] FIG. 9 shows another example of a two dimensional data grid
(950). In this example, collected information about a single file
is compared across four computing systems. As seen in the data grid
950, cells 913, 914, and 918 are flagged. In some embodiments or
configurations, the flagging indicates a difference from the
reference data. In other embodiments or configurations, the
flagging indicates a difference from the other systems involved in
the comparison.
[0090] The menu area 960 of FIG. 9 illustrates another interface
for generating the flags for collected information. Instead of
comparing a pre-defined set of information that includes multiple
items, the menu area of FIG. 9 allows for information about a
single item to be compared across systems. Load button 901 may be
used to select a list of computing systems to collect information
from. The single item of information to be checked is specified by
the drop-down boxes and text boxes seen in row 903. Button 902
performs the specified comparison and causes the results to be
displayed.
[0091] FIG. 10 illustrates a further example of a two-dimensional
data grid 1050. In data grid 1050, the results of comparing
reference data to information collected from four groups of
machines is displayed. Each group of machines is represented by a
row of grid 1050. The collected information is divided into four
groups, each of which is represented by a column of grid 1050. Only
cells 1001, 1002, and 1003 are flagged, which indicates that the
collected information that corresponds to each of the other cells
matched or was compatible with the reference data.
[0092] Note that in FIG. 10 an example of a utility output area is
shown by boxes 1060 and 1061. It is to be understood that a variety
of other formats for a utility output area are possible.
[0093] Clicking on, or otherwise selecting, an individual cell of
data grid 1050 loads a new data grid at a lower level of
granularity. FIG. 11 shows data grid 1150, which is an example of a
data grid that may be displayed after selecting cell 1004 of data
grid 1050. The rows of the data grid 1150 show the individual
computing devices that make up the group of machines represented by
cell 1004. The columns of the data grid 1150 show the individual
items that make up the group of collected information represented
by cell 1004. Cell 1004 was not flagged. Thus, none of the items in
data grid 1150 are flagged. If cell 1004 had been flagged, then at
least one of the items in data grid 1150 would have been
flagged.
[0094] FIG. 12 shows two one-dimensional data grids 1250 and 1260.
These data grids are an example of what may be displayed in
response to selecting on cell 1101 of data grid 1150. Data grid
1250 is of a lower level of granularity than data grid 1150 in that
it displays further details about the file represented by the
column containing cell 1101. Data grid 1260 represents the
reference data against which the information in data grid 1250 is
checked.
[0095] FIGS. 13 and 14 illustrate examples of a user interface that
may be used to specify the individual items that are to be
collected from computing systems for comparison. In FIGS. 13 and
14, check boxes 1300 and 1400 are checked to include an item in the
collected data and unchecked to exclude an item from the collected
data. As seen by button 1301 of FIG. 13, this interface may be used
to save the set of data to be collected. The set of data may be
saved as, for example, an XML file. In some embodiments, the
information to be collected may be specified separately from the
information to be compared and potentially flagged.
[0096] The computing systems from which to collect data may be
discovered automatically. Alternatively, the computing systems may
be specified using a similar interface to those shown in FIGS. 13
and 14. The computing systems to collect data from may also be
specified with an XML file. The XML file specifying the computing
systems to collect data from may group the computing systems and
may specify which set of information to be collected corresponds
with each system or group of systems.
[0097] The process of collecting information may be automated. In
some embodiments, the collected information may be continually or
periodically updated. Further, in some embodiments a user interface
displaying flagged items is launched automatically when a
misconfigured system is identified. In some embodiments alerts may
be raised when a flagged item is identified. This may be
particularly useful when a misconfiguration is evidenced by health
information, such as low memory or error conditions. Examples of
alerts include messages, such as e-mails or text messages, and user
interface alerts, such as pop-ups or desktop notifications.
Diagnostic information, such as memory dumps, may be collected and
saved whenever misconfiguration is detected.
[0098] In still other embodiments, some or all of the information
is collected in response to a user request instead of being
collected automatically. The information may be collected together
in a batch, or it may be collected piecemeal in response to a
user's actions. For example, details of a computing system's
registry information may not be collected until a user selects that
system's registry information in the tree view area 402.
[0099] The user interfaces described above may be integrated with
system administration and repair tools. For example, commands to
revert a computing system to its last known good configuration may
be incorporated in the user interface. Other examples include
automatically copying files or other data from a reference system
to a misconfigured computing system and providing shortcuts to
virtual desktop access, a command line interface, or other
administration tools associated with the monitored computing
systems. The tools may be made accessible, for example, by
including links to the tools on a right-click menu or in menu area
401.
[0100] In some embodiments, the data grid or tree view user
interfaces may be used to collect additional information. For
example, a user may be able to select the "Registry" item in the
hierarchy and then request that more information about the registry
for an individual computing system or group of the computing
systems be collected. Thus, the above-described user interfaces may
be used to gather additional information beyond any initially
collected or automatically collected information.
[0101] Aspects of the disclosure have been described in terms of
illustrative embodiments thereof. While illustrative systems and
methods as described herein embodying various aspects of the
present disclosure are shown, it will be understood by those
skilled in the art, that the disclosure is not limited to these
embodiments. Modifications may be made by those skilled in the art,
particularly in light of the foregoing teachings. For example, each
of the features of the aforementioned illustrative examples may be
utilized alone or in combination or subcombination with elements of
the other examples. For example, any of the above described systems
and methods or parts thereof may be combined with the other methods
and systems or parts thereof described above. For example, one of
ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the steps described
above may be performed in other than the recited order, including
concurrently, and that one or more steps may be optional in
accordance with aspects of the disclosure. It will also be
appreciated and understood that modifications may be made without
departing from the true spirit and scope of the present disclosure.
The description is thus to be regarded as illustrative instead of
restrictive on the present disclosure.
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